Bay Area travelers daunted by the high cost of parking at some airports can rejoice, as the San Francisco International Airport is opening a new affordable long-term parking garage Thursday.

According to SFO spokesman Mike McCarron, the new garage will cost $12 per day, making it the cheapest airport parking garage in the Bay Area.

The garage is equipped with a baggage check for most domestic airlines and shuttle service every five minutes during peak traveling hours, officials reported.

http://cbs5.com/localwire/localfsnews/bcn/2006/05/31/n/HeadlineNews/AIRPORT-PARKING/resources_bcn_html

$12/day for airport parking? It's amazing how widely people's concept of "affordable" differs!

The baggage check is cool, though.

I just watched a video segment on the KTVU web site ( http://www.ktvu.com/video/9309190/index.html ), and an SFO spokesman said it would be $12 and not be taxed. That's pretty competitive to PARK SFO just down the road which is $10.95 plus tax per day (though not as good as SMA which is $9 a day including tax, but further out).

The garage in question was originally built as UA employee parking right across from their maintenance base, so it's not a far drive from the terminals.

Uh, wasn't the OLD SFO-run long term parking lot in approximately the same location -- actually a little closer -- and at approximately the same price (a little more expensive for the first 7 days, a little cheaper after that)? In short, this is much ado about nothing.

Uh, wasn't the OLD SFO-run long term parking lot in approximately the same location -- actually a little closer -- and at approximately the same price (a little more expensive for the first 7 days, a little cheaper after that)? In short, this is much ado about nothing.Well, this new covered long-term parking lot was recently (until 5/31) SFO employee parking. The change has unceremoniously booted the employees to an outdoor lot that is much less desirable. So I'd be careful claiming it as "much ado about nothing"... ;)

OK, it's much ado about a little bit! :)

Now if someone could just explain why the shuttle train doesn't go to either of these parking lots and instead stops in midair a few hundred yards away, I'd appreciate it!

OK, it's much ado about a little bit! :)
I agree. The parking garage I use, ParkSFO, charges about $14 per day (+8% sales tax) for self-park in covered parking.

However, I receive lots of discount coupons for this garage, such as one day free on a stay of two or more days, and two days free on stays of three or more days. So my net cost is considerably less than the nominal price of $14 per day, especially since I only use the place for stays of a few days (on longer trips, it's SuperShuttle for me instead of self-driving).

It's hard to see how $12 per day is hugely better than $14 less discounts, unless of course we're talking about REALLY lengthy stays! And perhaps the $12 garage will offer coupons as well? One can only hope.

And perhaps the $12 garage will offer coupons as well?

..or even accept competitors coupons to stimulate business? Time will tell. This year I've been parking at SMA for $9 a day on my mileage runs.

Old thread.

Its a year since the garage opened. I have never parked here (usually use ParkSFO). The flysfo website indicates the parking is now 13$/day. Are there taxes on top?

Its a year since the garage opened. I have never parked here (usually use ParkSFO). The flysfo website indicates the parking is now 13$/day. Are there taxes on top?

No taxes on top. Just 13$/day. See here (http://www.flysfo.com/web/page/parking/long-term/)

One other update is that if the covered long-term SFO lot is full, they overflow onto the adjacent open lots. The bag check at the covered lot seemed to be closed for the day when we used it earlier this week.